Difficulties in the run up to Christmas

Another week has finished and I find myself ticking the days off until it is time to pack my bags and head home for Christmas. Many people may think that this is the easiest time of my time away so far. I only have 3 more weeks left until I can come home, classes are winding down, Christmas decorations are beginning to appear and the ski season is about to start. It would be silly of me to disagree with this. Yes, this is all true, however I can’t say that it is the easiest time so far, in fact, I would go so far to say that it is the hardest time. As classes are beginning to finish to leave time for studying it means that I have less things to do and therefore less of a routine. This means that I have more time to fill and while I should be filling all this time with studying, it is not possible to study every waking minute of every day and therefore there is more time to dwell on what everyone is doing at home and what I would be doing were I at home.

It is coming up to Christmas, a time for family and a time for friends. I am lucky to be able to say that I have met some great people while I have been here and we are all able to share different experiences with each other and lean on each other for support when we need it. It is an interesting experience to see how another country and another culture celebrate the Christmas festivities. However, I can’t wait to get home and do things that are ‘normal’!

Enough dwelling on the difficulties and time to move onto what I have been doing and what I have in store to try to enjoy all of this extra free time that I have! Of course, I still have to do some work and concentrate on university. However, in addition to that, I visited the Christmas market yesterday in Grenoble. It was quite spread out but it was nice to have a wander around the different stalls, whilst drinking some mulled wine (of course!) and see the Christmas lights all on. However, it was very cold and so we didn’t spend loads of time having a look at different things.

Tomorrow I plan to buy some Christmas decorations and attempt to make my room slightly more exciting and festive than it currently is!

We have planned to go to Annecy next Saturday as it is the first weekend of their Christmas market and I have heard many great things about the town. When we get back that evening we have got tickets to go to see Grenoble take on Toulouse at rugby in the Stade des Alpes. The following two weekends will hopefully be taken up with some trips to the ski centres and then, finally, we have a trip to Paris to look forward to before flying home.